Bilingualism/Multilinguism
- Thread starter Sedenya
- Start date
Nobody can share their experience?????????????????
We are english speaking parents wanting to send our child to government kindergarten but "affraid" of the difficulty for our kid to get along with the other kids and being outcasted because of the language barrier. I wonder how long it will take to settle and not speak but at least understand cantonese.
Our plan is to afterward send him to an international primary school. As I said it's just for him to learn the language of the country he's leaving in.
We are english speaking parents wanting to send our child to government kindergarten but "affraid" of the difficulty for our kid to get along with the other kids and being outcasted because of the language barrier. I wonder how long it will take to settle and not speak but at least understand cantonese.
Our plan is to afterward send him to an international primary school. As I said it's just for him to learn the language of the country he's leaving in.
i speak to my lo in mandarin, hubby speaks to her in english and mil speaks to her in cantonese..
i think she is only picking up cantonese though, coz my mil takes care of her and see her well, like 5 days a week.
hmmmm.. it might be an idea to send your lo to local kindergarten,, i am sure she'll be able to pick up some cantonese..
i think she is only picking up cantonese though, coz my mil takes care of her and see her well, like 5 days a week.
hmmmm.. it might be an idea to send your lo to local kindergarten,, i am sure she'll be able to pick up some cantonese..
reei - you are in the ideal situation my hubby want us to be in!! 
except that i haven't been very good at fulfilling my part of the bargain. i can speak mandarin, but not a native mandarin speaker, so i end up reverting to english all the time.
i do understand from other friends with mixed parentage that each parent should speak to the child exclusively in their respective (but different) language and the child will be able to understand both well.
Sedenya - chances are that in a govt kindergarten, your child will be able to pick up the local language much faster than an adult can. One thing though is that you may not be able to assist them with their Chinese homework ....
except that i haven't been very good at fulfilling my part of the bargain. i can speak mandarin, but not a native mandarin speaker, so i end up reverting to english all the time.i do understand from other friends with mixed parentage that each parent should speak to the child exclusively in their respective (but different) language and the child will be able to understand both well.
Sedenya - chances are that in a govt kindergarten, your child will be able to pick up the local language much faster than an adult can. One thing though is that you may not be able to assist them with their Chinese homework ....
i am not a native mandarin speaker too, so for those words, i dont know, well, i just speak english.. hehe.
of if could remember long enough to find out, i can ask my colleagues when i go to work, lucky that i have colleagues from mainland china.
as for assisting the lo with chinese homework, when my lo goes to k1, i intend to get an easel, where she can 'teach' me chinese with that. we can play 'classroom' and she can be the teacher, i'd be the student.
things that we dont know, we can always ask her daddy, or,, if needed, i can bring to work to ask colleagues..
there is always a way to work around it,,
of if could remember long enough to find out, i can ask my colleagues when i go to work, lucky that i have colleagues from mainland china.
as for assisting the lo with chinese homework, when my lo goes to k1, i intend to get an easel, where she can 'teach' me chinese with that. we can play 'classroom' and she can be the teacher, i'd be the student.
things that we dont know, we can always ask her daddy, or,, if needed, i can bring to work to ask colleagues..
there is always a way to work around it,,
somebodyfamous
Registered User
Yeah they say that but my mother spoke Cantonese and English to me growing up. As long as you don't use BOTH in the same sentence, your child is never confused.....
Children pick up languages easily and it's usually their parents that they learn racism from, sure a kid can see another kid is different color hair whatever but they don't normally care!!
I knew a German family who sent their son to a Chinese local kindy then primary, he spoke fluent Cantonese, wrote it and had friends from school as well as his parents friends children to hang with, spoke fluent German, English and Cantonese. He left HK at 11 yo, he's going to surprise some people when he's older hahahahaha :haha:
Not true. Code-switching can confuse a child but not always the case. In the early stages, code-switching (mixing language words in a sentence) is not encouraged. But as a child grows older, it can be a strategy as part of learning a language.
My parents code-switched when we were little. My mum used Teochew (a Chinese dialect) and English. Currently, my son is old enough to distinguish between the languages and we code-switch to help him learn a second language when we feel it is necessary.
On this similar topic since I see at least two moms who try with Mandarin but are not native speakers, does anyone have any advice on whether it is detrimental to speak imperfectly to your child in a language (in this case, Mandarin), when you are actually trying to help them learn it? I had a naysayer tell me that I should just speak English to my child and then hire help to teach her Mandarin. But I feel like that's such a waste because I can speak it, only not really that well...that shouldn't be an issue when she's just learning languages though - or is it?
Yes, I agree. Once a child understands that there are two (or more) different and separate language systems operating in his world, the 'confusion' that people speak of is not an issue.
I speak to my son in English about 85% of the time, my husband uses Khmer about the same. The rest of the time we use the other's language, and sometimes I speak to him in Korean, but usually only for songs. He goes to nursery school in Cantonese.
He's doing very well linguistically. At 21 months he understands both English and Khmer very well, can answer questions, make simple sentences and follow instructions in both. He's not yet old enough to realise that he has two languages, even though he uses two different words for the same thing. It's pretty amazing to watch, really.
His English is strongest, and we expected that, given that much of his socialisation with family and friends of the family is in English.
As a mother with a masters in early childhood language development, I think my son is amazing and feel I'm blessed to witness his development. He's like my own little case study! :smile:
somebodyfamous
Registered User
It depends if the child knows there is 'code-switching' though!!!! I had the embarrassment of calling an elevator a 'leep' (cantonese word) when I was a teenager. As my mother had substituted the cantonese word for elevator whenever she spoke English, I presumed 'leep' was the English word for elevator.
So mix your two languages at risk of embarrassing your child who may or may not know you are 'code-switching'